In Varanasi, it is farmers and a soldier that are challenging the PM | The Indian Express

In Varanasi, it is farmers and a soldier that are challenging the PM | The Indian Express

Written by Jyoti Punwani |Updated: May 9, 2019 7:54:21 am

The writer is a Mumbai-based freelance journalist.

In Varanasi, it is farmers and a soldier that are challenging the PM

Who could have imagined that some day, it would be a jawan and a kisan who would challenge the prime minister in a Lok Sabha election! A pliant Election Commission has eliminated the jawan from the competition; it hasn’t yet managed to get rid of the kisan.

Dismissed BSF constable Tej Bahadur Yadav with supporters in Varanasi. (PTI/File)

“Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan.’’ It’s been more than half-a-century but this powerful slogan, given by a diminutive prime minister, remains imprinted in memory. In four words, it encapsulated the importance of the two sections of our society who were at that time invisible.